Pope Francis has asked Henryk Hoser, S.A.C., bishop of Warsaw-Prague (Poland), to go to Medjugorje as Special Envoy of the Holy See.

According the Vatican, “the mission has the aim of acquiring a deeper knowledge of the pastoral situation there and above all, of the needs of the faithful who go there in pilgrimage, and on the basis of this, to suggest possible pastoral initiatives for the future”.

So “the mission will therefore have an exclusively pastoral character”, and is not related to determining the veracity of the apparitions.

Archbishop Hoser will continue to exercise his role as bishop of Warsaw-Prague, and is expected to finish his mandate as Special Envoy by summer of 2017.

Archbishop Henryk Hoser celebrates a Mass at St. Florian’s Cathedral supporting a legislative proposal for a total ban on abortion. in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016.